Thank you, Max.

I call it to order the Toledo City Council Committee of the Whole.

Clerk, please call the row.

Driscoll here.

Gaddis.

Meldon.

Surround two here.

Williams.

Here.

All right.

Uh, thank you all, colleagues, for being here.

We'll probably have some more colleagues trickling in.

Um, this meeting is the purpose of our uh last few presentations on the city budget.

Um, as I stated before, if anyone from the public would like to uh speak, there is a sign up sheet here after uh the presentations.

Um, we'll take public comment.

Um, but right now, first up, uh, and I'll acknowledge uh Dr.

Jones is actually here as well.

The mayor's the mayor's office budget.

Uh I think the floor is yours.

Thank you, Madam President, members of council.

I'm Abby Arnold, Deputy Mayor, and I'm here to present the uh proposed twenty twenty-six budget for the mayor's office.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

You'd think I'd have that down by now.

So you've all seen the new org chart.

And again, the intention of representing our organization in this way is really to try to break down silos and communicate that the uh the mentality of our administration is that we're all one team and the work that we do affects uh the whole organization.

And um I'm excited to say that we're already seeing that at work.

So our new liter leadership team has been working together on our strategic plan.

Uh it's been great to see the collaboration across uh all the the newly appointed chief positions.

And we actually hosted a working session of this entire group, all the bubbles on here, but actually far more than the bubbles on here.

Um we're in attendance to look through our strategic plan, and it was really exciting to see the excitement and the engagement around around the strategic plan.

Um so as I've said before, the mayor has a bold goal uh to grow Toledo to 300,000 residents by 2040, and we plan to do that by building safe, vibrant and connected neighborhoods, promoting economic growth and inclusive opportunity, delivering exceptional city service and modernizing infrastructure, securing Toledo's financial future, and cultivating a thriving workforce.

Uh this uh plan will guide not just our work in 2026, but over the course of the rest of the mayor's administration.

Okay.

So let's go ahead and get into the budget.

Um you see here our positions um in the mayor's office.

Um you'll notice that there the number of positions is flat from 2025 to 2026, but we have shifted some positions around.

And so um we did eliminate one of the assistants, and that position has been sort of replaced in numbers uh with one of the new leadership team positions.

So when you flip to the next slide on slide five, the the majority of our budget really is here in the general fund budget.

And the reason why you notice the increase in the labor portions of the budget is really two things.

One contractual pay increases and the flipping of a lower paid position for a higher leadership team position.

But the rest of our um supplies and services uh are either flat or slightly down from 2025.

Uh our supplies are mostly uh what you would think of as traditional office supplies, proclamation supplies, those types of things, um a small amount um for training and travel for the mayor.

And um, and then our only contract really is the federal lobbyist that we're we've been working with um for about a year now.

Um and then as you go into the SCM and R fund, and then on the next two pages, it's all sort of the same thing, which is one position that is split amongst S C M and R, special assessments, capital improvement, and water and sewer operating funds.

That's one position.

Those are the only things in those funds is one position that gets split amongst those.

Um with that, I will take any questions.

I just want to uh also thank you to Director Campbell for getting us those breakdown services.

Um that was very um uh educational for us.

Um and I know a lot of us took some deep dives into it.

Uh my eyes went cross a couple times, so I appreciate that.

Um question that I have is how much where is the lobbyist at?

Is it in services or other?

It's in it's in services.

Okay.

That's what I've got to do.

Contractual services?

I remember seeing that.

Professional services.

Okay, but I so I so it's not in labor.

No.

Okay.

That's where I I thought I heard it wrong.

I just wanted to clarify that.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Just one question.

Thank you for the report.

In services, uh 2024, we were at 172.

2025, we doubled to 330.

Now we're at 318.

Is what's the what's the cause?

I think the main driver between 2024 and 2025 would be the lobbyist, the cost of the lobbyist, which is 75,000.

Um I can get you by referral the rest of the differences between those two.

The biggest difference is that federal lobbyists, but obviously that doesn't count for all of it.

So if I could get you the breakdown of the details between the two years, I can get that by way of referral.

I would appreciate that.

And then also in services, you said travel for the mayor.

What is his does he have a specific line item?

Uh well, the I mean we just have training and travel just like any other budget does, but it's really just covers his um like the U.S.

conference of mayors, he's on the housing committee, so there's a couple things he has to do through the U.S.

Conference of Mayors for that.

Um I think that's the the bulk of it, but any of the um any of those conferences that he would go to get covered by that.

So is that a is what's the line item budget for his his travel and travel and education or is that just him?

Does it include you?

Does it anybody else?

It is our entire budget, but a couple years ago when we were really trying to reduce budgets, we reduced it down to a number that would just accommodate the the set things that the mayor does.

Okay.

Um this year I will accompany Simon and the mayor to the um regional uh Toledo Regional Partnership visit to DC.

Uh but the last two years I have not done that, but I am gonna participate with that with them this year.

So that would be the only real travel outside of what the mayor does.

But I can get you the exact numbers.

Okay, appreciate that.

Thank you.

That's all my questions.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Sarantu.

Thank you, uh Madam President.

Um Deputy Mayor, if we go back to 2022, the first year of the second term, we had expenditures in the mayor's office of a million fifty-two thousand.

For 26, we're at a million nine sixty-one, almost double.

Could you kind of tell us summarize?

Uh obviously labor costs have gone up, but I don't have the positions gone up.

Number of full-time employees.

I'd have to go back and see, because if if I go back one slide from 24 to 25, we are we're up one position.

I don't think our numbers of positions have changed a lot over the years.

Um if I could I can break that all down by way of referral.

Um 2022 through these years, what kind of attributed for those?

Um, but it I do think it is primarily labor costs.

Okay, because in 2022 the labor costs were 585,000.

For 26, they're 1.2 million, which is more than double.

So by way of referral, if you could uh give us the details on that.

I'd be happy to do that, give you the details.

I do know that we added the grants team to the mayor's office in that time period, so that is two positions.

So I guess the positions would have changed when I think about Simon and Laura who do our grants.

They are in the mayor's office budget, so that would have but a beta a change in that time period, and I can tell you exactly when that happened when I break it down by way of referral.

Okay.

Um, as well as Monsi would have been some at some point in there as well.

So I can break that down.

Yep.

And I I don't think communications was a part of that in 2022, but if you could address that also in the referral, what uh that's a separate department, I'm pretty sure.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam president.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, would you please hang around for questions?

All right.

Next we'll move to City Council's budget.

All right.

Good afternoon, President Williams, Finance Chair Seranto, and other distinguished members of council.

My name is Lucille Frank, and I'm the chief of staff for Toledo City Council.

Thank you for the opportunity to present our 2026 budget proposal at today's hearing.

Before I dive in, I want to start again this year by thanking each team member of the Toledo City Council staff who worked diligently to both support Toledo City Council members and your work, as well as the daily needs and partnerships of our constituents, the administration and departments, and external partners.

I can say confidently that in the two years I've been at Toledo City Council and in partnership with the clerk of council Julie Gibbons, our team and the work we do has remained consistent and continued to improve.

And I look forward to another year of growth with this team.

Speaking of our team, on the screen is Toledo City Council's organization chart in accordance with the proposed budget.

In it we have one council president and 11 members of council, one city auditor, which he is part of our team, but not part of our budget.

In it we have one council president and 11 members of council, one city auditor, which he is part of our team, but not part of our budget, one sergeant at arms, again part of our team, but not part of our budget, one city clerk, two deputy clerks, one chief of staff, six legislative aides, one administrative assistant, and one legislative intern, part of our team, but funded by a different line item.

Council ended 2025 with one vacancy that I'll discuss more in a future slide.

So what are some 2025 highlights?

Two, two employees and six interns hired and onboarded.

Council onboarded a new legislative aid and administrative assistant in 25.

We also enjoyed having three University of Toledo law interns, two University of Toledo graduate interns, and one Miami University undergraduate intern throughout the year.

Funds legislated were just over $950,000 this year, and I'll dive into that a little bit more in a future slide also.

We volunteered at the Islamic Food Bank, Cherry Street Mission, Connecting Kids to Meals, and then the Salvation Army twice.

Had to go back because it rained the first time, and we wanted to make sure we painted the ramp appropriately.

45 council member-led town halls, community meetings, and special events.

Highlights include Councilman John Hobbs and Councilwoman Dr.

Brittany Jones having town hall series, councilwoman Teresa Morris having monthly Regina Chale neighborhood meetings, councilwoman Sir Sandra McPherson's fourth annual Jazz Fest, Council members Gaddis and Comives and their Talk and Trash series, Councilmember Meldon's spring meeting series, councilwoman and president Vanese Williams Summer Splash series and more.

46 resolutions in attendance.

Resolutions are a way for City Council to recognize, honor, declare, and promote important people, businesses, events, and topics in our community.

We typically have one to two at each council meeting.

49.

Although there is no mandated minimum number of meetings in Toledo's charter, council meets on a regular basis throughout the year with breaks during the summer and winter holiday season to hold agenda review, council meetings, and special meetings to review and pass legislation.

60.

Between the nine council committees in 2025 and the committee of the whole, council held 60 hearings throughout the year.

This included budget hearings, hearings to review special topics, legislation or programs, monthly finance hearings, and more.

And lastly, 155 city work service requests entered by council staff.

Engage Toledo is the city's main call center for service requests to be entered from public calls and outreach, and our team is trained and have CityWorks accounts to also enter service requests for residents who reach out.

Many of our calls involve service requests that have already been entered and necessitate review or additional outreach.

And at this time, we don't have a way to collect data on those constituent calls.

So going back into the DIP program, I foresee us promoting and uplifting council's district improvement program this year.

And to start that off, I want to give a short report on the program.

Out of the 16 pieces of DIP legislation passed in 2025, 15 were unique projects, and one of the 16 being additional funding.

In total, we legislated 957,930.10 cents.

In 2025, over 75% of our projects were parks related.

In comparison in 2024, just under 75%.

Overall, council's district improvement program has included 71 pieces of legislation since its beginning in 2019.

Over $3.5 million of capital dollars legislated for DIP projects.

And I just want to be clear on that number.

That does not mean we spent all of that.

Some of it has been returned to the fund when projects close out and are under budget, but $35 million was legislated.

And the majority of projects are parks improvements, including new playgrounds, pickleball courts, and public bathroom access.

Others include safety cameras and partnership with police, road calming safety measures in partnership with T Dot, community signage, and more.

Next, we have our legislative internship program.

Council first partnered with the University of Toledo's Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center for a 2024-2025 school year legislative internship program.

We are currently in our second year of the program and budgeted again at $15,000 in 26.

This would allow us to partner for a 2026 to 2027 school year program.

Thank you to our outstanding legislative interns that were here in 2025, Sarah Kanye Prager and Ashley Westgate, who's still with us this semester.

National League of Cities membership.

The City of Toledo has been a member of the National League of Cities organization since 2017.

There is $18,000 budgeted for 2026 membership dues.

That is the same amount as the last two years.

Every year the dollar amount is a little different depending on the formula that the National League of Cities uses.

And so this year our exact bill will be $17,366.

Granicus.

The City Clerk's Office uses Granicus or Legistar as we talk about it to organize, record, and share all council meeting details and legislation.

We budgeted 40,000 this year, and we are expecting a new contract within the year also.

Council 88 improvements and other upgrades.

Starting in 2024, we have been working with the city's disability manager Valerie Fatika, the board, the port authority, and facilities to review and improve parts of our chambers and 21st floor council offices.

There was some work done in 25, including the new flags and flag poles here in chambers.

Thank you, Sergeant at Arms Jim Bilo for your partnership on that project.

Reorganization of the back office space on the 21st floor, and painting of the conference rooms.

This work is continuing into 2026.

We have $15,000 set aside for this continuing project and plan for it to be completed by the end of quarter one this year.

And then DIP matching the 2025 budget.

There's 300,000 of capital improvement fund dollars budgeted for 2026, which translates to $50,000 additional per district in 2026.

So the next slide here is our cuts and reductions of our budget.

In an effort to make cuts to our regular council budget, as you can see on the screen, we were able to make multiple reductions in the following areas: personnel, office supplies, contractual services, which is mainly our legislature line item, advertising, 2025 amendments, and then reductions from internal services.

Between our total reductions and increase to our personnel section due to raises and medical insurance cost increases, council's total reductions in the 2026 budget, uh total 225,686 dollars or 7.95%.

Even with these budget reductions, I feel confident we will be able to support council members and all that you do and serve the residents of Toledo in a professional and thoughtful way.

In this proposed budget, we cut one full-time employee or full-time equivalent position that was vacant, an administrative analyst three position that would have been a legislative research analyst.

This cut was done in an effort to hit our goal of our 5% budget cut.

And total Toledo City Council's proposed budget includes 12 council members, one of which is the council president and 11 staff members.

Next is our proposed expenditures.

So labor, overtime, pension, employment taxes, and medical and other personnel.

That's our personnel section of the budget.

And our labor is at 1,498,044.

And I just wanted to note that even though we cut one FTE position in this budget, some of these lines are higher in 2025 based on health care and other costs that all departments are experiencing in the 2026 budget.

And it was not something that we had planned for, frankly.

Supplies.

In our supplies line item, we have three things.

We have 20,000 for office supplies, which was cut by 11,000, $6,000 for postage, and $3,000 for outside printing, such as business cards and stationary.

And then services.

I'm gonna go to the next slide for this section because it's broken down in detail.

But for us, uh we had $367,351 in our services line and break broken down.

That includes our education and travel, parking.

This one is a new line, but we've spent this much money every year between our law intern parking passes and our stickers that we give our guests when they park in the garage and come to meetings and to presentations.

Um that costs us about a thousand dollars annually.

Uh cop uh copy or click charges, professional services, which is our American legal for $15,000.

That is, and Julie, correct me if I'm wrong, that's the organization and business that we work with to update our Toledo municipal code any time we have legislation that changes the code.

Um they go in and they make those edits for us.

Um, contractual services, that's where our granicus and part of our um ADA and upgrade funding comes from, that is at $50,000.

Repair and maintenance, um, this is toast.net.

This is another tool that the clerk's office uses to keep our legislation backed up, and it is in a Google drive that is accessible to the public.

Advertising, um, this includes the Blade, uh, Toledo legal news and other publishers.

Um, and this is our official way of publishing materials through the clerk's office.

Membership and dues is our $18,000 for NLC.

Seasonal intern service is our legislative internship program for $15,000, and then the rest of that dollar amount is our internal services chargebacks, so IT, facilities, insurance, etc.

And then I'm just gonna go back one second to say that our capital improvement fund is the $300,000 listed there for the DIP program that we've talked about.

So, in total, um, for general fund, we've got the $2,612,649, and that again is a reduction of $225,686, or 7.95%.

Overall, Toledo City Council's 2026 proposed budget will allow us to fund all filled positions, support members of council and their policy and committee work, and ultimately serve the residents of Toledo in an effective and efficient way.

Thank you, Council President.

This concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much.

It was actually my suggestion to break down our services line items because we did ask that of the administration, so I wanted to make sure that we did it on our end.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

I just want to take a moment to thank you for your presentation.

You this was so well thought out, and it was nice to see the highlights.

It was nice to see every line item and to make sure that the public can see every line item that we're using, even when you take the categories and break that down.

And I appreciated that you listed what it was and then the amount.

When we talk about transparency to our residents, this is the transparency that I would expect as a resident.

So thank you for bringing that to council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um nothing further.

Oh, Councilman Saramtu.

Thank you.

I too uh want to thank you for an excellent presentation.

And I might note uh that city council actually that at the budget task force um we sought uh a five percent cut in every department and uh council has exceeded that almost eight percent.

And I regret that there weren't more departments in the city that adhered to our request for a five percent cut, but I'm pleased that it at least we have done that and that we've exceeded that.

So I appreciate the chief of staff's presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Uh Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

And I just would like to say I ain't bragging, but this is starting at the top.

This is leadership.

When we ask and we're asked to cut the budget, we followed through.

It was hard.

We wanted to make some additional add-ons.

We wanted to do some other things, but this is what we have to do.

And as leadership, I want to thank council for putting it all together and and Lucy for being so descriptive.

Every line item.

Thank you.

Because our citizens, they need to know and they need to hear it line by line, where it is, what it is, and what it's for.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think that the our um our budget presentation through uh chief of staff did you did really good.

Thank you so much for breaking it down and and working with the various uh folks on this council to do it.

Um, our DIP program um will be transferring from economic development to uh actually our we will be taking on our DIP program in on our council floor.

So um uh chief of staff will be handling that uh working with various departments, economic development will stay on to assist, but we're taking on our own program.

Um maybe it can streamline some stuff because as you can see, our DIP program is amazing.

It does some really cool things within the community and it highlights what we hear from our people.

I'm glad that um Councilman Meldon um he wasn't able to be here today, but I'm glad that he spent every coin of his, and I want us to keep doing that because our DIP program is our chance to really help the community from what they want.

So, and definitely with the parks, the parks actually showed up and asked for the money in a in an impactful way and listened to the uh constituents.

So, without that, thank you so much uh for that presentation, chief of staff Lucy.

Um, we'll move on to our budget amendments.

And everyone should have their sheets.

Uh we'll go with the mayor's amendments first since theirs are a little bit shorter, and then we'll go to ours and break it down.

Uh I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Finance Director Melanie Campbell.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon, President Williams, members of council.

Um, we have kind of two amendments on the uh proposed 2026 budget.

Um, the first one is in the general fund, and it's really just moving um the budget for one position from building inspection to code compliance.

Um it's an administrative position, um, and it includes wages and fringes, and it's 103,000 approximately that would um just again move from building inspection to code compliance.

Um, and then the second amendment is is three line items, it's all related to one purpose though, um, and it's a really just a correcting amendment for some budgeted FTE positions within our road and bridge area that were incorrectly omitted in error as we were finalizing the uh proposed budget in November.

Um it doesn't impact the general fund in that case.

Um it does impact though our street construction maintenance and repair fund.

Um it's about 1.4 million, our special assessment fund 63,000, and then a little bit in CIP 170,000 is those positions are split funded in some cases.

Um those are the two overall amendments from the administration.

Okay.

Uh Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Madam President.

Just a quick question for clarification.

Uh code compliance is under what department.

Um code compliance is now part of um community and housing development.

Housing development, gotcha.

And then so we still have code compliance under zoning and or under plan commission, correct?

Or is it separate?

So code compliance the last four years we had building and code compliance together in one department.

We've sort of split those up and um building inspection is part of economic development and code compliance is part of housing and community development now.

Got it.

All right, thank you.

All right.

So let's any question, any other questions about the mayor's amendments at all.

All right, so we have uh council's amendments in front of us, and uh if council would uh we'll just go down the line for each item um and each council member whose item that is, please talk about the amendment and what you seek to do with it.

Um, uh councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Um this was originally proposed in the 2025 mid-year budget adjustment.

Um I had worked with the plan commission, but with all of the changes, um the legislation did not get out in time.

The RFP is completed and it continues the work of landmarking um and the historic present preservation that we are uh working on in the neighborhood in the neighborhoods.

Um with that I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Number two is from me.

Um I actually heard from several c colleagues.

Uh the position that we did cut out of our budget um was an important one that we didn't feel last year, and I really think that and you guys tell me if I'm wrong, we need that position, and I want to make every effort to get that field.

We need to uh we didn't have a whole lot of legislation come from this body last year.

We did have some, and I want to push that forward.

Uh we are the legislative body of the city, and I want to make sure that we have what we need to legislate.

Um that position um is a legislative research position.

We've had it in the past, we haven't had it in a while, and I think that it shows and I want to make sure that we're uh equipped with what we need.

Um we still cut our budget.

We did cut our budget as we saw uh from chief of staff, but I think that position is very crucial.

Uh, we work without it for a couple years, and like I say, you guys tell me if I'm wrong, but I think we need it.

Um I think we need it.

I uh uh just feel like I want us to be the best at the work that we do.

Um so I think we need it.

Councilmember Gaddis.

I just want to commend you on bringing this important piece.

As the legislative body, having someone help us write legislation, I think is critical.

Um I tried my hand at writing legislation this year.

It's very time consuming, it's very detailed oriented.

Um, and the research takes a long time.

So and able to have someone to help us carry that load so that we can do more for our residents, I think is is wonderful.

Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Madam President.

I support this because I think it is important.

Uh I think uh legal research is a very unique uh skill set that requires a certain amount of training.

Um, but I do have a question.

Would this help assist the clerk of council?

Uh um the elected officials, or would this fall under the chief of staff?

Where would this position be housed?

It would be actually I would like it to be under the clerk.

Okay.

Because it is legislation, but that is something that we definitely can talk about.

We can talk about it now, we talk about it later, but I do want it to be part of the legislative body.

Definitely report everybody reports to us, but I want it for us.

Sure.

Um I want it to come out of the clerk's office though, because it is the clerk's office is in charge of legislation that comes out.

Um they have to review, she has to review everything that comes out anyway, so they can work in conjunction and we all will work together anyway.

Sure.

No, no, that makes sense.

I just want to just try to make sure that we get um the proper resource to the proper need.

Um and I think the clerk does have an outstanding job, but I I think at times uh we tend to put a lot on her um and not necessarily giving her enough uh heads up or you know, we need it like immediately.

So having this uh extra set of hands and eyes would be definitely be helpful.

So thank you.

That'd be it.

Number three, councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you, President Williams.

Um, this will be the fifth anniversary of the Jazz Fest.

It has been sponsored by the City of Toledo along with Lucas County Commissioners.

And I'm asking for requesting again $50,000.

Um, because I want my desire is to keep it under the city, because in previous years we've had um city jazz fests under different entities, but they seem to drop or fall apart, and it's a part of the city, and and you all have seen Jazz Fests from all around other cities, and it is the one event that the city sponsors that is free to everybody.

This year, it will be a two-day event.

It will be Friday and all day Saturday.

We have gone internationally with our lineup, and this year, Jazz Fest will be in honor of Toledo's own art Tatum.

It is, I believe, Toledo's history, it is our story, jazz, and um the mayor's office has been working with us uh diligently, and we hire Great Lakes Jazz Society to do the legwork as far as staging and performers and contracts and all of that because they are 501c3.

But I believe that this year is gonna be uh exciting year because it is the fifth anniversary, and the citizens of Toledo deserve it.

On top of that, it brings money into the city of Toledo.

They come and stay in our hotels, they eat at our restaurants, and they enjoy free jazz.

Our numbers have increased.

Our first Jazz Fest was 2,000.

The year after that, it was four.

When we had Bob James here as the headliner, it was 8,000.

And last year, well, because it was 999 degrees outside.

We dropped down to about 6,000 people, and the majority of them came kind of like after the sun went down.

But um, the reviews from not just the citizens of Toledo, but we have people come in here from Texas, Cleveland, Cincinnati, North Carolina, my girlfriend from Paris comes just for this Jazz Fest.

And so it puts a light on the city of Toledo.

We need to brag about us.

We need to do some things to celebrate us.

And the city of Toledo is jazz.

So I'm excited.

Um, if you know the movie Ray, the actor Ron O'Neill, who played Art Tatum in the movie, will be one of our guests at this Jazz Fest.

Um, so I'm excited, and I just want the city of Toledo to continue to support.

And yes, we are looking for other sponsorships and other ways to sustain the Jazz Fest, but we always want to keep it under the city of Toledo as the head sponsor.

Thank you.

And if you have any questions for me.

All right.

Item four.

Uh is from Councilman Meldon, and he was not able to make it today.

Councilman Drisco.

Thank you, President Williams.

Uh Councilman Meldon's asked me to present this.

This is just uh increasing the budget on the vibrancy initiative, the facade improvement grant, and the white box grant, and then the various planning grants that go along with those uh by $500,000, uh, which bumps it up to a million sixty-eight thousand.

This is pretty similar to the amount of money that was expended in last year's budget on the vibrancy initiative.

And you we all know the impact of it.

It's been pretty successful program, attracts um tenfold investment on the private sector side.

So uh I know he feels very importantly that if if we really are trying to grow uh as a city as a community, um you know we should invest in it.

And so this is an attempt at that.

Thank you so much for filling in for him.

I have a question for Brandon.

Brandon, can you come forward, please, real quick about the vibrancy, please.

When is the application for the vibrancy grant open?

Our citizen helpful pass in the uh okay.

So the December 17th that you passed the budget, and our goal is eight.

Don't be holding us to a date.

I'm just joking.

Um, okay, so whenever whenever we're going to be able to do pass the budget, we are ready.

Okay.

Okay, this is a very important program.

So um I just wanted to make sure that we knew that in order for the program to be moved, we do have to um decide whether we get the amendment and we pass the budget.

So thank you so much.

You're welcome, thank you.

Uh, Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

I was just gonna reiterate the importance of this program.

This is probably one of our um best programs that we have in terms of economic development tool dollar for dollar.

This is the best uh rate of return for our taxpayer.

It has shown significant improvement in some of our legacy corridor areas, it's helped improve um to it'll be more business friendly, it helps uh reactivate uh a lot of these sites that may not otherwise be able to.

Um I have in the past co-sponsored this amendment uh annually, and I would like to co-sponsor again.

Uh so I'll speak with uh Councilman Meldon to act as a co-sponsor, but this is an extremely important program that we would I would love to see not only uh grow and expand um but also use this as a template for other creative initiatives to help with uh light industrial industrial areas um and then also some of our neighborhood um mom and pop shops that could use the assistance.

So thank you.

Yes, for sure.

Uh council member got it.

Councilwoman Matt got it.

Um no.

Councilwoman McPherson, I'm sorry.

I'm reading here and that's okay.

Um Brandon, could you come forth?

Just stay up here, Brandon.

Well, the thing is we're talking about it, but I'm not for sure if our citizens really know what this program is.

So if it's a big deal, it's a huge deal.

And when you talk about a $500,000 increase or million dollars, I I think our citizens need to understand what this program does, the communities, or name some places that you've seen where we've done it, so that they can kind of grab hold to why we're increasing our budget when we say we were cutting it.

Thank you.

Thank you for the is this on?

Can you all hear me?

It's hot.

Okay, all right, good.

Uh well, thank you for your support.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about this initiative.

It really started out of talking with our business owners and property owners and some of our legacy commercial corridors around why why are we not seeing investment happen?

Why are we not seeing businesses go into these spaces?

And so we started off with bringing back the city's facade grant program.

It's something that I heard regularly when I was out meeting with businesses is we need assistance fixing up these old historic buildings.

They cost a lot of money to do.

So we brought back the facade grant program.

And as we kept doing the facade grants, we realized while we were putting beautiful faces on buildings, maybe we weren't moving the needle on bringing new businesses into those ground floor commercial spaces, and there's a lot of vacancy in the city.

So we started to ask the question well, what would it take to get a small business to go in one of these ground floor commercial spaces?

And as we started to talk with business owners and property owners, we we started to understand that it cost a lot of money to bring these spaces up to today's code.

These some of these spaces have been vacant for decades.

Codes have changed, health code, fire code, building code.

And so just to for a business to go into one of these spaces costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So with our ARPA dollars, we set up a pilot project.

Thank you to council members for believing in this, and we um piloted a project on the Broadway corridor.

And we said, okay, if we provided a $75,000 grant to fix up a this white box, could we attract a small business in that space?

And the answer is yes, and we did.

Um that space is currently occupied and has been occupied since that pilot program.

So then we said this is great, let's roll this out to the rest of the city.

And the following year we established the white box program, and now we have done, I think 36 white box throughout this entire city.

I just responded to a referral request from Councilmember Morris.

Um we only out of the 36, I think there's only three of those spaces that are currently vacant and being marketed for a tenant.

So this brings new business into the city.

Remember, number one revenue source is income tax.

So how do we bring more revenue into the city?

We've got to bring more businesses.

So then we started to ask the question, and we challenge ourselves every single year.

What can we do to refine this and to grow it?

Um, and I appreciate your comments about because we do challenge ourselves and to think about this differently.

We were getting a lot of applications, but maybe not from the neighborhoods or the corridors where we wanted to see us move the needle.

So we started to ask why is that?

And we started to talk with property owners and business owners.

And there's a particular skill set to know how to redevelop these buildings, right?

The average citizen probably doesn't know about the building code and the fire code and know that they got a contract with an architect and have a licensed professional.

It's a lot, it is a lot of work.

So we said, okay, well, let's pilot out a planning grant program where we'll link arms with them and hire the consultant on their behalf to understand what their dream is for their space and get them the architectural and engineering drawings that they need to be able to do that.

And in addition to that, understand the cost, right?

There's a cost to do these things.

They might look at that and say, it's not worth my effort to do it.

So we piloted the pilot program.

Uh we were very excited last year because Mr.

Daly was our first facade grant planning uh program applicant, and he um went through the program with us, was very successful.

He decided he wanted to improve the outside of his building, so we applied for an implementation grant, and last year was awarded a $40,000 implementation grant to bring his vision for the outside of his building to life.

Um we also are working currently on a small building on North Detroit Avenue, Nikita McDonald, who is bringing her vision for bringing a uh commercial kitchen into that space that is set vacant for 30, I think almost 30 years.

So this is the type of work that it takes to move the needle in the parts of our city where I think we're really wanting to see progress.

And so it's a very, very important initiative to us in economic development.

We've made great relationships with the property owners and business owners that um have gone into the space.

We feel very passionately about it.

If you can't tell, um we're thankful for your continued support.

Um, you know, we're thankful for the mayor's continued support of this as well.

You know, I understand the budget is tough, but when you think about our budget, let's start to think about things that bring in revenue.

And I believe strongly, and we have a report and we send it to you every year that shows the impact of these vibrancy programs and how they're bringing new jobs and income tax and vibrancy to the neighborhoods that we think that need it most.

So thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about it.

Thank you for sharing.

I appreciate that because I think uh a lot of people didn't know what the vibrancy initiative was, and so to be clear that our citizens can understand it, and then there might be somebody out there that's listening that might want to apply for come apply.

Yes, February 17th, maybe great great opportunity.

So thank you, Brandon, for coming back.

And let me um just say for the JAS FES $50,000, I'm not asking it from the Rainy Day Fund.

I am asking it from the interests that is left over from the ARPA dollars.

So it is not coming out of the general fund.

Thank you.

All right, council council member Gaddis.

Thanks.

Sometimes I swear um councilwoman McPherson and I sync up.

Um I wanted to make before I ask you a question, I wanted to make a point about how I appreciate um council member Meldon using the ARPA reinvestment return on this.

Um it's not hurting us, that's not an extra weight, it's a great use of that extra the interest that has occurred on the money.

Um I guess furthermore, I was uh a couple weekends ago I was in Michigan and I was bragging about our vibrancy businesses, their ears perk up at the thought of having a vibrancy and facade program.

And uh it's a it's a bragging point that is very motivator for other cities.

Um my question for you is with this extra $500,000, what would be the range amount of projects we could do?

Like what kind of an increase to our communities with this?

How many projects?

Off the top of my head, and I'm just ballparking.

I believe that based on the original budget that we had of I think it was like 568,000 that's being proposed.

We had maybe 15 projects that were anticipated with this amount.

I think that we could get closer to what we did last year, because this would match last year's budget, which is around 25 projects.

And again, that ranges.

Not every project gets the full amount, the grant amount.

They don't need might not need that.

So I think the more that we increase the budget, obviously the the number of projects will certainly scale.

Yeah.

As a district member that has a lot of legacy corridors, so many of my residents, they they want those rebuilt.

They want to have walkable cities.

And I think that having 30 more places with businesses, that goes a long way with that funding.

So thank you for your hard work and thank you, Chair.

Councilman Drisco.

Thank you, President Williams.

Before I was speaking as the presenter of the amendment, and I'm speaking as a commenter on the amendment.

What I can say is we worked with MKSK at National Planning Firm when we did the downtown plan and the downtown plan update.

And they called this, this is a plan, this is a firm that does plans all over the country.

They called this out as one of the most innovative things we do in the city of Toledo.

And it's being taken to not we're not just bragging about it in other communities.

Other communities are stealing this uh intellectual property from us, which is good.

Uh because we're not all oftentimes outsourcing our ideas, we're often bringing them in.

But in this case, we are.

So great work.

I could have told you you could sit down.

Uh I didn't need you up here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just to piggyback off of that, during the presentation, I mean, they all they talked about the whole presentation that they did for the downtown was about that, but they were just focused on downtown.

There's a lot of work, Broadway Corridor, um, Stanley's out, Stickney, and it's a lot of organizations that have taken advantage of this pro businesses, small business, and it's plenty more because I got a whole list of folks that's ready for that grant to be released.

Um the next one is the community police station from Councilman Meldon.

Anyone?

Okay, well, I think I okay.

Councilwoman McPherson.

I'm on his team when it comes to this one.

Um many of you know that uh the uh police station, um, what was it called?

The former Michael Collins.

D.

Michael Collins police station um was closed, and we moved them downtown.

Um the district uh the residents, I went to the meeting along with Councilman uh Seranto, and they were very upset because this uh it was closed, but that building was it needed to be closed.

And um so councilman Meldon, this is in his district, he is uh proposing to look for another building, and he is requesting the funds to do this because of that closure.

And I support that because it is it was one of the things that we had said in the meeting, and we always want to listen to the residents of the community.

And when we agreed to close that, that was one of the things that we had agreed that we would look at.

So I'm just in support of following through and using the dollars to make it happen for the residents in Sal Meldon's district.

Thank you.

Councilman Hobbes, thank you, um, Council President Williams.

So, what is going on with the uh station that uh councilman Meldon is asking for as previously stated, um the station that had been closed and so um some of the members in that community, district five have reached out to myself and council president Williams being the chair and vice chair of public safety, and they are interested in having a substation or a police station in that area.

Um and so I have talked to councilwoman Williams over District 4 Councilwoman Morris, myself, District One and Councilman Meldon, and some of the citizens uh ask them would they have a problem if we took this uh substation uh a little further east where districts one, two, four, and six come together.

And so that Jackman and Sylvania area is the area that those four districts, we all kind of come together there.

There had been a discussion about the Vaux Village, but the Vaux Village does not give you a community feel.

We want to keep a community feel.

Um there had also been some discussion about the mall, but again, we want to keep a community um feel and a community presence.

And so as council members, those four districts, um we have had myself and councilwoman Williams have had um several meetings with um deputy uh director crawl.

Um we've met with uh um chief uh Trinley um Deputy Chief Braun, and we've had these conversations about how this looks.

What is being considered now buildings that we are possibly looking at is right on the corner of Jackman and Sylvania.

There is a previous used car lot, and also it was a smoke shop at the same time.

Um at that time, it was in my district, and um myself when I had it, and then Councilwoman Williams, we constantly get requests to make it a car lot again.

Well, just one block up at Burdan and Jackman, there is a used car lot, and they've gone across the street and bought a building, and so we're um we don't want to councilwoman Williams, President Williams would not like to have another used car lot there, and so that is a strong consideration for having a station.

Also next door is the um Long John Silvers that's been vacant for probably about 10 years.

That space is also being considered, and then there is a plaza across the street next to the family dollar, and there is some space in there that's being considered.

And so some of the things that are being considered about the building is the um car lot, it's a trailer.

Um, and so with that provide adequate space.

The long John Silvers has been closed for a long time.

So the amount of money it could take to bring that back up to uh operating uh exp um being a space that is um operational for the community.

Um and then across the street, of course, there's the plaza of which we wouldn't own the building, and that way if a pipe bursts or something, we don't have to worry about fixing it.

Um another reason that the area is strongly considered is because it is a five-stop.

Um you have our young people that will be going to that go to start high school, you have a funeral home there, you have speedway, you have a drug recovery that used to be a United Methodist church.

Um there's carry out.

So there's just a lot of great things there that would be a community presence, and it would be you know nothing greater than to have our cadets as they are training to be in those neighborhoods running their laps, doing their push-ups or whatever is going on, just to have that presence in the neighborhood, um, that would be good.

So this is why Councilman Meldon is requesting the uh 500,000.

Um he and I, Councilwoman Morris and Councilwall President Williams again have had several conversations about this.

It is something that not only district five desires, but the other three remaining districts and their councilmember as well.

And so hopefully um this will be able to go forward and um be a impactful piece of uh this community once again.

Thank you.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh so I was actually kind of curious about this since as a district two rep no one's talked to me about this since we don't have a substation in our area.

Reynolds Corner area that would uh really could use it, especially after um some incidents over the past summer and we've had some uh other issues kind of spurring up in that area.

So while I'm not necessarily opposed to it, I would like to be invited to the conversations.

Um this is uh definitely needed and it's a good use of funds.

I guess my question is what is the sustainability of this project in terms of how do we keep it ongoing?

Is this something that the police budget can absorb, or are we gonna have another uh put up a bunch of money into a dilapidated building just to have it get dilapidated again?

Um as much as I uh respected uh D.

Michael Collins is a colleague of mine, and we worked very well together, uh, that particular station should have been torn down 20 years ago, but because of lack of political will, um it was they just threw good money after bad.

I don't want to see that happen again.

Um so if we're gonna do this, it should be strategic with the importance of all the the district members, especially because there's never enough police officers.

Um we should really consider this we should really have a bigger conversation about this in terms of strategy.

Because what I don't want to do is throw good money after bad, especially when we have another austere budget, and it's only gonna get tighter as we move forward.

Thank you.

Councilman Hobbes.

Um thank you President uh Williams um answer to that, uh Councilman Martinez when these conversations came about because the community members were very uh district five community members were very um adamant about that station being open, and they had several community meetings as previously spoken by councilwoman McPherson that they opened up for all of us to come and attend.

And you know, that's where that conversation generated from.

Um also um Mr.

John Bibbish has been very, very vocal about having this uh station in that area.

So you know, any meetings from this point forward, that is no issue at all.

We were just responding to the cry from District Five and attending to that.

Um as far as good money um not uh being put to dilapidated buildings or anything like that.

That's why I was saying the loan John Silvers probably will not be a good space because it's been closed for so long, it would take some money money to bring it back up to coal.

The one thing that the community has asked for, and that's why we're considering if that um trailer again it's if it's going to be able to house what is being asked for, because the one thing the community members have asked for is if a person can be staffed in the building at least six hours a day.

So if you know police reports need to be filled out, accident reports, whatever, they have somewhere to go because it's sometimes very hard and can be lengthy, a lengthy wait to go to the station at Nebraska or to come downtown.

So that being considered, will that space be big enough?

And if we go to the space, that research or is being looked into now.

If we go to the space across the street, then as you said, that's a more modern building, and we won't own it, but we also if things don't, if things happen, we won't be responsible and have to fix it.

So we are doing our best to try to make those necessary judgments so that good money does not become bad money.

And uh from this point forward, if there, you know, our discussions, I will make sure that yourself and um our other uh district member uh will definitely you know be invited.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Council Councilman Sarantu.

Thank you.

Um I am very supportive of this because I think it is important that we do have a presence uh and another location for that D.

Michael Collins station.

Uh and I think uh as uh Councilman Hobbes and I have discussed, I actually went over to that site at Sylvania and Jackman.

And the trailer is large, it's not a small trailer, it's very large.

Also has uh a huge amount of parking available right there.

I and I also think that the uh former uh retail store across the street could would have possibilities too because of parking and so forth.

The long John Silvers, I think is just a terrible choice because it was a restaurant, it would be a very costly remodel, and um, you know, uh it's just not not feasible uh for that.

So I'm hoping that the administration uh I know I talked to uh Director Sellhorst about this some time ago, but I'm hoping that we can come up with a good solution.

Um we're not looking for a huge substation with dozens and dozens of police officers there.

We're looking for to have a presence, and as Councilman Hobbes has said, to have a visible presence.

You don't have a visible presence at DeVoe Village nor at the Franklin Park Mall.

So to me, this is this is the best location uh for this project, and I think we ought to look at that.

I would also add that the Scott Park station uh does serve uh the South and Southwest side of town and has been there a long time, and we have many police officers assigned to the Scott Park station.

So I think again with the tight budget we we have to do what we can with limited dollars and I think the two sites I've mentioned uh would really fit the bill thank you uh madam president thank you President Williams I think my question and I don't know if it's able to be answered by anybody here today but um is the is the five hundred thousand dollars a one-time payment and that would fulfill the whole need or is this an installation of several more uh do you have an answer thank you um I might invite the chief or safety director up but I think I can do this.

I know that they are actively working with council members to fulfill this request.

I believe that if this is a situation when we're not owning the building as uh councilman Hobbs said that this would be there would be an annual rent payment so this would be maybe the 2026 and it would be something we would need to continue to budget for didn't want to come up.

I think I believe that's correct.

Okay yes so I think this would need to be budgeted for annually once the annual cost is figured out and from what I've heard from the conversation they've had they believe that this 500 thousand dollars is plenty um maybe not maybe we don't even need quite that much but until that's determined is he up here now I think we can call him Chief Crawl now we can call him Chief Crawl again I don't take I don't take a handful will I see Chief Chernley but yeah created them bubbles.

Thank you President Williams uh once we decide the exact direction that we're going whether it be buying uh a standalone building or paying rent uh that's when we would make that decision but like the deputy mayor said most likely that payment that 500,000 would be broken up into annual you know rent payments and lease lease payments.

And that and another question I gotcha then that would be able to be started this year.

Yes.

Yes.

All right thank you.

You're welcome thank you good question.

Thank you so much.

Councilman Martinez thank you just a quick follow-up I guess my other question is um since it seems like there's still a lot of things to be hashed out is there something that could be done as a mid-year budget adjustment instead of deciding on it right now I think I think talking to Councilman Meldon about it will be um proven since it's a his amendment and we're going to be voting on all these amendments individually um so um I think we can have a conversation with Councilman Meternessy um I do know that I I think someone was interested in purchasing that area uh where the trailer is um not sure but I know for sure the long John Silver someone was interested in it I'm not I don't know where it is right now I don't think they purchased it yet but it it might I was thinking more so of renting the space too because um of uh of the budget constraints um but that area hits all four districts like you couldn't beat it uh councilman hobbs I wanted to say first of all I apologize uh the councilwoman gaddis was the other district person I was referring to and I just couldn't think at the time the other thing about the substation is that um they are asking for someone to be there for so that reports can be given but that station would also house the CSOs for all the basically um six or either eight but they would they six CSOs one where we have our district meetings and they come out and they give the staff and all this building also what house the CSOs Councilwoman Morris thank you President Williams um I believe that this is a win-win win-win um because it does touch all of those districts right there and it is the forward facing of the police um it's very hard uh to come downtown you have parking issues uh you have to be I think buzzed into the the the safety building um so folks in that part of town it would just help with accessibility and um I I just think that this is a a good opportunity um I think there are some questions that need to be answered but I think putting this forward shows that it is a priority for the administration and for council.

So thank you.

Councilman Driscoll.

I do think that the call volume for our EMS justifies an additional fire station as well.

So this is something I think you know, keeping this in the budget, but having that conversation about may perhaps co-locating uh fire and EMS if that's possible with the substation is something we ought to be thinking about as well.

I do want to go back to one thing you said, President Williams.

You said we'll be voting on each of these amendments separately, individually.

And we'll do that when Brandon says we're allowed to.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I think Brandon ran out.

Um right.

The next one is also uh Councilman Meldon, but I think uh if any he didn't actually want to do it, I think that uh I can speak to it a little bit for what his perspective was for that.

Um we used to have 125 in our dip budget um for each district and uh the charge was put to spend that dip money down, um use it or lose it, and we lost it for we went down to 50,000 to make sure we're conscious of spending.

Um but uh working um with the various district council members, um he thought it was a good idea to raise it back up to uh at least 100,000 per district.

Um I uh know that was his intent, and I just wanted to say what he wanted to do.

Uh Councilman Drisco.

Thank you, President Williams.

I uh I want to commend the district members for spending down their dip balances represented, I think a liability for us over the course of the last year, and we they all work really hard to identify great projects.

Just wondering, Ms.

Frank, if you could submit to the council the the dip um uh where we are right now, each each district's allocated amount.

Would you like that right now?

Well, I just have it.

Yeah, sure.

Um can you get it to us in an uh send it to us as well?

Yes.

Um so this this is without any additional 2026.

Um so for District 1, the balance currently is 107,613 and 12 cents.

District two is 105,659 and eleven cents.

District three, one hundred and seventy-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty-seven cents.

District four, thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-three dollars and forty-two cents.

District five is zero.

District six is sixty sixty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty-six dollars and sixty-one cents.

Um, and just to know uh the last two years have been the highest spend years, um, almost two million dollars in total.

Um thank you very much.

Yep, and I will make sure to send out the report to everybody.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh Councilwoman McPherson.

Question.

So with this being 2026, that dip money that has not been spent currently is on hold.

So because this is CIAP funds, their capital dollars, they um go from year to year, and that is different than the general fund dollars that is that get reallocated every year.

Um so until we proactively close out uh capital project account, um, we would not lose those dollars without having that conversation.

So as of right now, everything capital for council is being rolled over from 2025 to 2026.

I'm asking these questions for public clarity so that they understand how the dip money is used and rolled over.

And the request to increase it because some people will have that question as to why, and they're still having used what they have.

So I'm putting it out there.

Transparency.

Because some has used all and some have not.

And now we're asking to amend to increase to amount that they haven't even used yet.

I'm putting it out there.

Thank you so much.

Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you.

Um I can speak as uh as a member of uh the district team here.

Um the the one nice thing about this is that it is evenly divided throughout the entire city.

So one area isn't doesn't have any preferential treatment over the other.

Another thing that I like is that the community or that district, what may work in district one, may not work in district two, may not work in district three, and so on.

So I like that it is really germane to that area, and what are some of the needs of that area?

Um and then lastly, I can tell you that $50,000 doesn't really buy you much anymore when you're talking about improvements.

Um whether it's road improvements, whether it's a park improvement, I mean, um, you know, jungle gyms uh cost a lot of money.

Um, you know, there's tariffs involved now.

There's all kinds of different things that that you know weigh in, and so unfortunately, 50,000 really is not as impactful as maybe a hundred thousand would be.

So that's my two cents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh council member Gaddis, I think you were first.

Thank you.

As a district um person, I uh this is fundamental to our districts.

When I began on council in 2020, many of many of the parks in our district were fields and um just straight fields.

I grew up by a park that was a field, and now we are seeing playgrounds for the first time.

And the majority of our money, if you look, is spent on the parks.

So while it is worthwhile for the people in the community.

Um as I do always every year, it's uh very l laborus to go through this process, but I invite any at large member to join me in the process to sit through the meetings to fill out the grant work and uh help get some of these projects completed.

Um but I this is this has been transformative in district three.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Madam President.

So I I would like to concur with my uh two district colleagues.

Um the dip money for my district specifically, we don't qualify for a lot of uh park funding, so a new swing set or park sets cost anywhere from 150 to 300,000 dollars, depending on what we did.

Uh so if you recall um that we use district two used the bulk of their uh dip money to finish off the Schneider Park.

So we helped with the uh the mini pitch, uh which I'm excited that hopefully start this spring for um those with impairments or disabilities that can compete in a uh uh a soccer league or something like that.

Uh and then we also have the playground set that was finished.

So I would say 90% of that project is finished and complete, but for the DIP project funding would not have been able to be finished, and we would have just waited our turn like everybody else to go through the normal uh park cycle to get new equipment and furniture.

So um, we have other parks in our district that um have just not gotten anything just because the funding hasn't been there.

So this uh is often critical.

Um we've been very creative in district two with trying to concentrate um on in focusing on specific uh issues last year was traffic calming, so there was we were we had the ability to help with the um Harvard Circle.

Okay.

I always get this wrong.

Yes, Harvard Circle.

It's not a roundabout.

And then the roundabout near uh South Detroit.

Uh we had um almost a fatality accident, and we've heard many about many times um cars just don't see the uh the roundabout and would go almost crash into this poor lady's house multiple times.

Uh but for this dip funding, we were able to curb some of that, and then we introduce as a pilot project uh thermal um rumble strips, which are temporary rumble strips that have been widely successful uh in traffic calming measures, and in fact, we're trying to add them into additional locations in district two uh where we're we're seeing increase in in um speeding and also trying to create more pedestrian-friendly areas.

So um the 100,000 dollars is definitely welcome and to my colleague in district six, yes, fifty thousand dollars does not go very far while it seems like a lot of money when you're trying to spread it uh in a large area, uh it gets diluted very, very quickly.

Um and then in terms of what I currently have going um my hope is that I will be able to expend all of last year's uh dip funds for a pilot project around school safety.

So more to come on that, but this is definitely uh welcomed from the $50,000 because as I'm trying to plan for the next year and working with directors and trying to figure out needs uh assessment for not only the directors but from our community and the residents, this kind of gives me a gauge on what I can and can't do.

So I appreciate uh everyone's support on this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Martinez for now.

We got Dr.

Jones.

Thank you, President Williams.

Um just for clarification, so it's going to add another 100,000 to each of the district's funds.

So right now it's at 50,000 a year.

Um it would add 100,000 to it add another 50,000 to what the 50,000.

So it'll be 100,000 a year instead of 50 per member.

So if you have still like 100,000 left.

Yes.

So it'd be like so.

I have in district, not I, district four has uh thirteen thousand, it will go to a hundred and thirteen thousand.

Okay.

Um as far as just the the projects, I think I mean I would love to help just if anything as far as grants and then projects just to um I think it'll be helpful as far as like a wish list, maybe, and see where you know we can plug in to help with these certain projects and just try to you know spend some of the money down because there will be questions.

I know I already know you probably already got all the questions as well, but I know there will be questions and some of the projects, you know, they the timeline once it's close out, that's when you start seeing the deduction.

So I think that will um definitely help as far as wish list or you know what's currently in progress and when that will close out as well.

I think that'll be some great additional information to include um just to keep everybody abreast um as far as what people are doing and um seeing what else that maybe that we're hearing that can possibly be in district because Adam, you're my representative, so I would definitely want to see more things in district two and see what we can do with that.

Um but I know the rumble strips that you're talking about, and that has definitely calmed down a lot of traffic from because I travel that all the time.

So um yeah, just really that that definitely would help.

So if you have like a list or list of current projects, wish lists, just so we can collaborate, I think that will help as well.

I think we do have a current list of some in the pipeline already.

Um we do, okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So um thank you, Council President.

We have a number of members that are actively currently working with their staff and the um different departments that are involved in some of these DIP projects.

Um so yeah, there are some projects in the queue right now.

Um I I would expect to see um some projects coming out starting in February.

Um and then in addition, I just wanted to add um the council president had mentioned we're gonna be transitioning the program from the economic development department to council.

Um and when we do that, we'll have to legislate it.

And so between now and then, our plan is to make sure that I and our team are all ready to take that on, um, but also to have those types of updates.

Um Dr.

Jones, like you mentioned, um, because we do have that information.

We just haven't really been sharing it with you all as well as um we would like to.

So that this transition will help with um that transparency um and collaboration amongst the team, I I believe.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

And thank you.

Uh Councilman Hobbs.

Just wanted to add with uh thank you, um, Council President.

I wanted to add with my fellow district members that this dip money is extremely important to our districts and what we are getting done.

Um for example, the first um Hawk Light that was established out on Hill Avenue so that children could safely cross streets happen in District One that happened through dip money.

Um if you've been to Jermaine Park, that park has been completely redone, director falls knoff and dip money, um tennis new tennis course, new lights, pickleball, uh you drive through there now.

Um I'm an avid runner and you go through there now and at 10 and 11 o'clock at night, people are still playing pickleball under the lights.

That's all dip money.

When you go to Ottawa Park, those tennis courts have completely been redone.

Dip money.

This year, um if you've looked, there is a new bathroom because I ask um councilwoman Morris and I worked on a bathroom in her district because being an avid fisherman, oftentimes when you went to Cullen Park, you couldn't get to the port of potties in the spring because of the rain and ice melting and it flooded.

And so that bathroom was done and a lot of that was her dip money.

And so now I ask Director Falznoff if we could get a bathroom at Ottawa Park, because especially for our ladies having to use a port-a-potty.

And so you will see that just a few months ago, there's a brand new bathroom sitting right next to the shelter house.

All the lights have been redone in the shelter house, electrical outlets replace.

That's dip money.

It's a timing factor.

Sometimes it is a you know whatever particular department you're working with within our city government.

But trust and believe the district money is being used, and it is being used very well in the districts, and our constituents especially appreciated.

If you talk to Director Falcnoff, almost every park in the districts have had improvements.

District 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, all of us have spent a ton of money improving our parks so that our children will have things to do in the summer and help keep them out of trouble.

That's all dip money.

So it is extremely important.

And Councilman Meldon applying for the 300,000, but it's not enough.

It should be more for what is needed in our community in our city and in our districts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number seven from Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you, President Williams.

I am advancing this in conjunction with the administration with uh Director Kral and uh police chief Trendley in an effort to try and not have a uh service break in our shot spotter uh contract, and that contract would run uh June 25, 2026 through 2027.

Um ShotSpotter is uh is a subscription service that we have paid for, which was a little bit more extensive um over the years.

Uh last year we amended um to just have three square miles of this coverage, and um I want to make a note that none of that is in my district.

Um, but I believe that safety is so paramount for our citizens and essential for our businesses if we want to grow and attract businesses.

Um this is uh uh a service that uh listens for uh different uh gunshots throughout the city uh or throughout that area.

Um and in 20 uh 25 alone, um we had 1600 six 1,620, so 1620 shooting incidents in that area.

And what's really important to note is that um only 923 of those incidents um resulted in a 911 call.

So we're talking about more than half of those of those incidences did not have a 911 call.

Uh it provides real-time alerts and precise location information.

Um so if around the 4th of July you play the game, is it a firework or is it a gunshot?

And so this will uh give a better uh it it gives better information to our first responders and it uh has them uh respond quickly.

Um they can render aid sooner, um they can can uh they can collect the the shell casings and then use those shell casings uh uh so they don't uh so that they can use that for uh making sure that if there is another shooting that they can they can use that evidence uh and collect it.

Um a lot of times people don't feel safe calling 911.

Uh they're not certain as to what is happening, and so this service fills that gap.

Um it is a reduction from last year's uh amount.

And one of the things that I think is really important um is that it's a one-year contract.

Um and as we saw with our refuse collection, having multiple year contracts can be problematic.

So I like that this is a one-year contract.

Um and it doesn't replace officers.

Um it just enhances the service that we have and it gives them objectable and um objective data and reliable information and it gives that that information to our community.

It it makes people um it makes our community safer.

Um and at a time when we're having issues with either a police class, either recruiting, having the money to support them, I think it's a useful tool, and I would ask for support.

Thank you.

All right, seeing no questions, let's move on to my item number eight.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Councilman uh Martinez.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just had a quick question.

So we have three square miles.

Do we know where those miles are?

Like or you can do by referral, I guess.

For security purposes, that's fine.

I just I'm curious to see what the umbrella is where that reaches.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Hobb, you have uh eight and nine.

I'm going to ask if Chief Krawl would come.

Uh I'm not yes, not not Chief Krawl, I'm sorry, Chief Trinley will come and speak to the knee for the 10 recruits.

And that's under item number eight.

Oh, number eight, would you just talk about the 10 recruits and uh I believe the uh amendment is to add 10 police officers to our academy class, uh taking us from 25 to 35, um which would uh help us offset the retirements that we are anticipating for this year, which right now we anticipate is going to be somewhere near 40.

Okay.

Anything else you have for us about that.

If not, that's why I just wanted to hear from you.

No, just for uh we appreciate council's uh putting forth this amendment because it is important for us to try to maintain our strength uh for our sworn officers, and I believe this will help us continue to provide all the services that we are currently providing if we end up dipping below uh uh our numbers too low.

We'll have to look at what we can continue and what we'll have to stop uh providing.

Okay.

Thank you.

I got our is that it, Councilman Hobbes, I'm sorry.

Yes, for the Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you.

I'm uh I'm sorry, Chief.

Um I might ask you to come back up.

Just stand up here.

Um I I think I missed, but we're going from a class as a 20 to 30 if this amendment passed, is that correct?

So uh 25 to 35.

35.

And how many expected retirements this year?

Roughly 40.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, uh, Councilman Martinez.

I think Chief.

Sorry.

So I I guess with the new contracts, um, having those additional 10 individuals.

Um, I guess my concern is this sustainability.

So if we get them on, can we keep them and maintain them and absorb them through uh future uh police operations?

So obviously if we add 10 more people to our police department, that is going to be a continual year after year increase in salaries.

Um we'll have to look at what's going to be available for future budgets to determine if next class will be larger or smaller.

We're always going to have retirements every single year, and we're going to lose people through a tree uh, you know, just going to different departments and/or leaving the profession.

Um I don't since I've been here, I don't think I've seen under 30 uh retirements in a year.

So we've been averaging roughly 50 officers lost every year since I've been around as chief.

Gotcha.

Um in terms of if you couldn't get the manpower, would other infrastructure help?

Drones, umas, uh new equipment to make the uh safety forces more effective and efficient.

So less reliant on manpower.

So uh there we do leverage technology and drones is one that we look at and are currently testing and have grant applications out for to try to continue.

Um that is a force multiplier for us.

Unfortunately, at the basic level for service, there are a certain number of officers that have to be available to answer those 911 calls for service and to be out there doing proactive stops.

Obviously, anything we can do through technology, whether it's our flock or our camera systems or our drones, that enhances our ability to respond.

Um I do believe drones will allow us to have a lesser number of officers out on the street eventually.

Um we're not there yet.

Gotcha.

And then what's the cost of a drone or so the drones are not cheap either?

So um right now it's for each area drone is 250,000 a year.

Got it.

And then um do we um do we have a minimum manning requirement or just a recommended minimum manning that we need to have daily?

So we do not have uh minimum manning for patrol.

We have minimum staffing for command officers.

They have a certain number of positions that are required per their contract.

However, on a daily operational basis in our operations, we do have what we consider a comfort number, which is kind of a number that has been come up with through doing an analysis of calls for service, safety, and having a percentage of time available due proactive policing.

Gotcha.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Sarantsu.

Thank you.

Um Chief, uh appreciate the information.

Um I don't think uh I think that having officers uh is really important, and I think having them on the streets in the communities in the neighborhood uh are very beneficial uh versus having a drone uh flying over a certain neighborhood.

People uh want to see the police out in the neighborhoods and the communities and so forth.

So my question is I know uh this past year you were able to hire experienced officers from other departments that did not need as much training.

In other words, I I think they saved some money for us in terms of the training requirement.

So my question is do you have a um a number of experienced officers you think might be able to join the department this year?

So for for this year, right now we do not have any laterals in our budget.

The way we've kind of worked and I talked with uh Director Campbell and what we did last year is we have not had an academy where we do not lose cadets from that academy.

So we don't graduate where we start.

Um so what we did last year, and which I am hoping to do this year if we do lose cadets is to transitioning that money into uh our lateral transfers.

And generally what we will do is come summer we'll start doing our recruiting for lateral transfers and we'll put in a September class that coincides with our current academy because it works to graduate at the same time because it's a shorter six-week academy.

Okay.

How long do we train the lateral transfers?

Six weeks.

Six weeks.

Okay.

Compared to seven.

Seven months for the seven months for a new recruitment.

All right.

But you're confident at this point that come September you may have some laterals.

Yes.

Right now we don't have anybody in the pipeline because we don't have open recruiting for it right now.

Um but there is always seems to be anyways.

There's always seems to be officers that are looking to transition, whether it from be a smaller department into a larger city or from another community into our community.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you very much, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

Um this question is for Melanie.

Um we're increasing, and we've already put into the budget for the for the class of whatever the number is.

Fifth what did you say it was?

I'm sorry.

I think it's 25 correctly in the budget.

For the additional 10.

Because we passed the levy back in 2024, the three-fourth tax levy.

And it's and it runs through December of 2028.

That tax levy was for public safety and for the streets.

Yes.

Yeah, the quarter percent is for roads, and then the three quarter percent temporary goes into the general fund.

Right.

Yeah.

So with that, with that, because it's still in effect, can't we or can the mayor switch because it says the money can be reallocated so that it would cover this additional class versus or these additional um versus using or taking it out of the grainy day fund?

The the three quarter percent funding is already built into the budget as revenue coming into the general fund in the income tax area.

So we're already accounting for it as we built our budget out for 2026.

Okay.

So for 2026 budget, you already included that additional one-third.

The three-quarter percent is the one that's been voted every four years since the eighties, I believe.

And so that's totally factored in.

With that, we still have a budget deficit.

Okay, I'm I'm I'm asking.

Yeah, sure.

So this so the general fund budget ha is built upon the three-quarter percent currently.

So in order to increase the this number of police recruits, we would need to take an additional nine hundred and thirteen and some change out of the range.

Because even with the three-quarter percent, we still have that structural budget deficit.

Okay.

I hey, I had to ask, because I was hoping.

We should only start.

I know I'm serious.

I was hoping that with that, because it said for public safety, that we could extend it.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Hobbes, you got number nine, too.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um Chief Armstrong.

Thank you, Chief Trentley.

Chief Armstrong.

Is Chief Armstrong here?

There she is.

Good afternoon.

Oh, everyone.

Okay, good afternoon.

Um, I believe you want me to address the extra 10 carfares?

Okay.

So right now, current uniform staffing is at 583.

We had approximately we had 30 retirements last year, but we only had a class at 20.

So that put us down uh 10 lower than we started with.

Right now, we're estimating about 20 retirements for 26.

However, we have 67 people that have more than 25 years, so that could fluctuate slightly.

So with the increase of 10, it puts us at a class of 30 for 26, and that puts us at about 593.

So our optimal staffing would be 600 or over 600, because we have minimum staffing of 118 firefighters and command staff uh every single day.

And then we also have about 170 people assigned to each of our three shifts.

We have A B and C shifts and then our administrative staff.

So our class is budgeted to start in August, and um the amount that you've been given reflects adding 10 fire recruits into that class.

Anything else?

No, thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh President, thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Chief Officer.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Just it's not it's for whoever can answer it, because if we are already budgeted for a class, could we do a mid-year budget to do the next class?

I I don't I think they budget at the beginning at a year for that.

I think that because of the time it takes to recruit on board and start that process.

I think we would want to know HR and the departments would want to know now what number they're recruiting for.

I think the mid year would be too late.

Don't you think?

Yeah, I think if we're gonna do it, it's best to do it now.

Okay.

Just hey, I'm asking the questions.

Any way we can get it, and if we can get it to fit in.

That's a good question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's a good question.

Um Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Uh Chief Armstrong.

Uh so the same question I asked uh Chief Trindle.

Uh so if for whatever reason we're not able to give you the manpower, um would it help with any type of technology, drone vehicles, uh mechanical equipment, anything like that in lieu of to help make your staff more efficient?

So we're a little bit different than the police department.

We do have minimum staffing, so I am required to have those 118 firefighters and command staff working 24-7.

And so when we don't meet that, we recall.

And so we are looking at drone technology along with the police department uh to try to supplement our resources and to get scene information quicker so we can make sure the appropriate resources are responding, but there's not a lot I can do to leverage technology as an offset for staffing.

Sure.

So then your staffing out of curiosity on an annual basis, how many times have you not met your minimum staffing requirement?

I don't have that answer off the top of my head.

It it's happened because when we start an academy, we have to pull line firefighters to detail them to the fire academy for instructors because we need a proper student to instructor ratio.

So that generally starts around summer, and that is also the height of our vacation time, and so we do dip below during that few month period until we get into fall, and we also have retirements that are starting at that time too, until we get the class trained and out to the line.

Sure.

So then how many retirements are you in?

You said about 20 you're anticipating.

We are expecting 20, and we get that number by calling all of the people that are eligible, and we ask them if they're going to retire or not.

Some don't disclose, some change their mind.

Uh that's why I wanted to point out that we do have 67 firefighters that have more than 25 years.

A full service retirement is 25 years and 48 or 52 years of age, depending on when they were hired.

Gotcha.

So what I'm hearing is if you have the choice, manpower.

Yes, please.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh appreciate that.

Uh councilwoman McPherson.

One other question.

Do we have any of the students that are in the high school program ready for this year?

I I don't know off the top of my head.

I think we had a couple that were in the process.

I don't know if they're still in the process.

Uh, we have because we've been using the same list for it'll be for two classes, and so they may not have met the age requirement at that time that they had to testing and get on there.

I I think there's two.

I could be wrong, but we have about 160 people going to backgrounds.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman Sarantu.

Thank you.

Chief Armstrong, what what is the minimum age for a firefighter?

It's 18 to be hired.

I believe in the testing process, they can be 17 and a half.

Okay.

I'd have to double check that.

And I believe it's 21 for uh police officers.

Am I correct?

Thank you, Chief.

Okay.

Um, thank you very much.

Thank you, Chief.

Um, I think I thank you all for um presenting your uh budget amendments.

Um, I do want to charge us to go back and really reflect on these budget amendments.

Um if we can cut anywhere, cut if if we absolutely can't, we can't.

Um, but actually really look at this because our charges to be the budget oversight of this city.

So um appreciate it, they all have great intentions, but um and you know, ask questions, talk to each other, see what what uh uh uh questions you may have later on, uh, and as well with the budget.

I thank uh everyone that has been waiting patiently to ask questions.

These meetings can be a little bit long because this is the taxpayer dollars.

Um and we have to make sure that we're really going through and asking the questions that needed to be asked.

Uh and now we'll turn this part over to uh the committee the people that have come to ask questions and talk to us and figure out questions that they may have about our budget.

Um we have Ms.

Donnie Miller.

Thank you for waiting patiently.

And I will say we have three minutes for each comment or questions, and I I am strict, so make sure it's three minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam.

Um Madam Chair, those of you on council, thank you for allowing me to speak with you today.

My name is Donnie Miller, I'm the executive director of the Neighborhood Health Association, and I'd like to speak in support of your budget.

The it's it's not rocket science to understand that the scope of your work is extraordinary.

You're not only responsible to your constituents, you're also responsible to your own personal beliefs and what's important for you in the serving of your constituents and what that actually looks like.

And in order for you to get that done, it's important to have folks back here in this building making sure that they are doing their very, very best work.

I'd like to give you some examples of my experience with those folks in this building that will allow you to rest assured that the money that you are allocating for these services is well spent, that you are well represented, and that the city of Toledo and agencies like the Neighborhood Health Association is well prepared to serve city residents because of because of that.

Brandon was here speaking about about the vibrancy program just a few minutes ago, and Neighborhood Health Association was lucky enough to be selected as a recipient of those funds.

And quite frankly, you know, you start talking about roofs and changing facades, and I have no idea what you are talking about.

But Brandon did.

Brandon did.

His response to us was immediate, it was intelligent, it was informative, and it allowed us to take a building on front and main.

Um, Councilwoman Gaddis, you may remember that the bricks were falling off of that building in such a way that that whole street had to be closed for several several.

It's also important to know that neighborhood health did not own it when those bricks were falling into the street and closing the street off.

But once we were able to acquire it, the vibrancy grant made that building one of the prettiest buildings on that street.

Um it went very it goes very, very far to um implement your vision, councilwoman, and the vision of uh of this body in terms of repairing those corridors that for a long time have not been have not been at the top of the list all the time.

A good city understands, and you're making me nervous.

I think you're counting my minutes.

I know you are a good city understands that in order to grow.

Um it it does it, it does so while honoring its history, that it takes that history and it wraps it in all of these wonderful new things that we have, and the melding of those two points of view brings a city that is responsive and reflective and uh so good when it comes to addressing its history and its ability to move forward.

Let me tell you about the what the experience the neighborhood health association has had in its 56 years of serving this community and working with the city of Toledo in in that service.

Um we have been able to work with you in this regard whenever we've come to City Council with issues that had to do with health disparities or my personal passion um concern around the loss of so many black babies in this community um and in the state.

Those of you that I approached to support that said absolutely, tell us what to do.

I'm hurrying, tell us what to do, tell us what to do.

You were there for that.

When we um we get black grant money for some of our services and what we get from the Department of Neighborhood is amazing vision.

I love you, but I gotta cut you off.

You knew I was gonna let you go with the black babies, but thank you.

So thank you so much for being here, but I do have to cut you off as four minutes.

Thank you so much, and we definitely appreciate everything that NHA does for us and you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next up, we have Mr.

Arnold.

Uh Richard Arnold, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Been attending all of these uh budget hearings, and I'm a little concerned about the reorganizations that are here going on.

Uh this is the organizational structure.

I see a lot of circles.

I don't see the ADA coordinator.

I don't see it on the uh Toledo City Council organizational chart either.

That is a federally mandated position, and it sends a loud and clear message if that individual is included here that we are a disability-friendly city.

And by the way, I want to say that our ADA coordinator is doing a great job.

Already runs things like the Snow Angels project that really helps a lot of people out.

But I'm really concerned that as we reorganize, it might get lost in the shuffle.

Also concerned about the what do you call it, the Toledo Lucas County Council on Disabilities.

I know they've had some attendance problems.

I know the last time that you made reappointments, you asked to see their attendance records and their uh recent uh minutes of meetings.

I think you should take a look at that.

What's going on with that group?

It's very important that we have a group like that to provide information to both City Council and the County Commissioners.

And I just want to tell you a brief story.

This was a couple of years ago.

There's a group called the Citizens Levy Review Committee that we were put together by the county commissioners, and they meet over there across the hall.

Um one of their uh people needs a scooter to get around, and they had conflict, they had a uh scheduling conflict, so they had to meet over here.

I had to point out to people uh you're not as ADA accessible as the uh county commissioners are over there where they sit they have uh uh ramps on both sides.

You have stairs here, you have a ramp in the back, but you have to go through a locked door to reach it.

And for anybody that does it remember the early days of the ADA restaurant owners would say, Oh, sure, I'm a handicapped accessible, just go to the back park, go past the garbage cans, go up the steep ramp, go through the kitchen.

That's not AD accessible.

Remember, ADA accessible means that a person in a wheelchair can enter a building with the same degree of dignity as anyone else.

So I'm just pointing this out.

I know you you earmarked some money for ADA, but I just want to point out we need to send a loud and clear message that we are a disability-friendly city.

So I think we should do more for our ADA coordinator, our council on disabilities, and I think we should send a message to Toledo.

Yes, we actually do still have our ADA coordinator.

She's under public works with in the fleet and facilities and everything to work closer together for our facilities.

But I think Deputy Mayor Arnold wanted to address that as well.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Arnold.

Um I think you hit it, Council President, but you're right.

We think that that is a very critical position.

It should be on there, and it's not, and we'll make sure it gets added there.

I know.

No, you're right, it's not there.

It's not there.

We'll get it added.

That is a critical position.

We did move it into the director of operations because we think that her role is critical, critical, just as you said, in ensuring that this is a disability-friendly community and going above and beyond the ADA.

So that's a miss on our part that she's not on there, but she's absolutely a huge part of this organization.

She's reporting to the director of operations now and in the facilities budget.

Thank you for so much.

All right.

Next up, we have Ms.

Jennifer Jacobs.

Jennifer Jacobs.

Okay, thank you.

You have three minutes.

Um Jennifer Jacobs, executive director of Leading Families Home.

Um, and I'm here just in support for the city budget.

Uh the city of Toledo has been essential partner uh in the work of Leading Families Home.

Uh, particularly through the continued support with emergency solutions grant, the ESG funding.

The funding has enabled leaving Leading Families Home to provide critical housing, stabilization, and support services for families experiencing homelessness, ensuring their families in crisis receive timely, compliant, and effective assistance.

Uh ESG resources strengthen uh program operations, expand capacity and allow organization to respond to urgent family needs across the city.

Uh the city support is uh was especially vital during the acquisition on in the integration of Family House, a transition that preserved and strengthened a long-standing resource for families experiencing homelessness, as you well know.

Uh the funding played a key role in supporting and stabilizing the operations and ensuring the acquisition could be completed successfully.

Uh this investment protected essential services, supported organizational stability, sustainability, and allowed leading families home to continue serving families without disruption.

Uh city investment comes at a time of increasing community need.

Nearly 50% of the families calling uh 211 to be placed on the shelter wait list are experiencing homelessness for the first time.

These families, these these families are often facing sudden crisis related to raising housing costs, economic instability, health emergencies or domestic situations that may have never previously needed homelessness services.

Uh this growing trend underscores the importance of prevention, early intervention, and rapid response systems supported by the City of Toledo.

The city's ESG funding and budgetary support has allowed uh leading families home to respond to the surge in first-time homelessness, reduce the length of time families remain homeless, and prevent long-term system and system involvement by investing in proven housing and stabilization programs.

The city helped uh mitigate greater downstream costs to emergency systems, schools, health care providers, and uh child welfare agencies.

So leading families home would not be able to meet these growing demands for services without the City of Toledo's uh leadership, partnership, and commitment to housing stability for families.

Continued approval of city funding ensures that families calling for help through 211 have access to effective solutions that Toledo remained proactive in addressing homelessness before it becomes chronic or generational.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, Julie.

I'm sorry, Jennifer.

Thank you so much.

Uh we appreciate what you do as well.

Julie Ambry.

Julie Imbry.

Hi, you have three minutes.

It's been a minute.

Thank you, Julie Embry, Executive Director of the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board.

I first want to thank you.

There's been a lot of interest and investment of your time in both personal meetings and committee meetings of this group to address homeless and housing issues in our community.

And it's not unnoticed, it's greatly appreciated.

Housing is health care, and I'm here today to please ask you for the utmost support for the Department of Housing and Community Development's budget to meet their needs, accomplishments, and outcomes that they strive to achieve.

With housing as health care, we have too many families in cars and boarded houses.

This has been a painful reality this year.

I will say City of Toledo funds, for which the department greatly advocated for from this group for warming centers this year, has increasingly provided individuals we've never touched with before that need our services.

We consistently engage 60 to 80 people a night on the nights that the warming centers are open.

And we have double checked our data three times over.

These are folks that are not involved in shelters.

These are not folks that are on our wait list to get into shelters.

This is a wholly new group of people that need help.

And it's provided an environment for us to engage and encounter with those people in a different way that's safe and accessible to them.

So thank you again for that opportunity, but not for the advocacy and awareness of this department.

I don't believe that would have truly happened.

I think that every invest every money invested in the city of Toledo can help with many things.

Another example, we recently connected through coordination and collaboration through these efforts with Toledo Police, a minor child that had been missing and been reconnected to a family, a family that did not know this area.

They were new, they relocated here because they heard through the grapevine, Toledo is a place where you're taken care of.

So we're happy to make that family whole.

Every dollar invested in stable housing, reduced costs in parallel systems of health care and law enforcement sectors.

One night in an emergency room is 1200.

This is not a statistics you haven't heard before.

Typically, if we have an individual arrested that's unsheltered for behavior on the street, they're typically there for several nights.

That's similar to a 1,200 cost per night.

And so we need to do what we can to create housing stability across our community to help these sectors because they are sorely overburdened as well.

Housing drives economic stability.

The homeownership, stable workforce are foundations for businesses and investment and develop in our community, which everyone strives for and have been spoken broadly about today.

But if we can't provide stable housing and ensure that it's the cornerstone, these things don't happen, they don't flourish and they don't grow.

Housing stability supports as you know, educational attainment for the uh future of our community and the young folks that need stability and support and an opportunity to focus on their learning, not where they're gonna sleep tonight or where their next meal comes from.

High rates of housing stability correlate to increases in crime.

If we can improve housing, we'll lower crime rates.

That's been an amazing hail that our community can say that it's driven through several different efforts that we've made in this community.

But housing is the bedrock and foundation to support that vitality, that uh security and the attainment that this city strives to be to be vibrant.

So I please ask you to consider fully every dollar, if not more, for this department.

Their work has been phenomenal.

Thank you.

Joe Cordella.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Joe Cordella.

I'm the vice president of Historic South Initiative.

I'm here on behalf of HSI, but really on behalf of the old South End, a neighborhood with deep history, strong families, and a lot of pride.

Over the past several years, the City of Toledo has invested approximately 1.8 million dollars in the old South End through CDBG and home funding.

This investment has allowed HSI to improve and rebuild rehabilitate more than 20 homes, stabilize long vacant properties, and help families stay housed in the neighborhood they already call home.

In a community like the old South End, that support truly matters.

Many of these homes are over 100 years old, and without public investment, even basic repairs can become out of reach.

And once a home is lost, it's incredibly difficult and incredibly expensive to bring back.

City funding has been the anchor for our work.

It has allowed us to step in early, prevent further decline, and leverage additional state and dollars when the city shows commitment to the old South End.

Others have been more willing to invest alongside it.

Without this partnership, many of these homes would still be vacant or deteriorating.

We've seen blocks begin to stabilize, families remain rooted, and a sense of momentum return in very real, visible, tangible ways, some of which you've already spoken about tonight.

Looking ahead, the need in the old South End is still significant, but so is the opportunity.

With continued collaboration, we believe we can keep strengthening housing stability, extending pathways to homeownership, and ensure that this historic neighborhood continues moving forward.

We're grateful to be a trusted partner of the city, thankful for your continued support and committed to doing this work block by block, house by house, alongside our residents and community partners.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you for your support, and thank you for believing in the old South End.

Thank you.

Patty Hernandez.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Good afternoon, President Williams and members of council.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you and for your continued commitment to the City of Toledo and our residents.

My name is Patricia Hernandez, Patricia Hernandez.

And I serve as the acting executive director at Legal Aid of Western Ohio or LAWO.

For more than 70 years, LAWO has provided free legal services in civil cases only to low-income individuals and families.

We serve 32 counties in Northern and West Central Ohio and farm workers throughout the state.

We help thousands in our communities secure justice, veterans, seniors, survivors, consumer, consumers, homeowners, tenants, and still others.

We help these individuals and families in a variety of areas: consumer law, family law, public benefits law, housing law, to name just some of the subjects that we cover.

Essentially, we are a nonprofit law firm that provides access to those who would not otherwise have meaningful access to our system of justice.

One of the most critical ways that we do that here in Toledo is through our right to counsel program, which helps ensure that eligible tenants facing eviction have access to an attorney.

Eviction is not just a housing issue, as was recently mentioned.

It's a driver of homelessness, economic instability, job loss, child custody issues, and negative health outcomes.

Having legal representation often makes a difference between a family remaining in their home or being displaced.

Our right to council program was even identified as an achievement or success in a recent presentation by Director Clemens about the Department of Housing and Community Development.

And we were thrilled to hear ourselves described that way, and we'd love to continue that advocacy.

With the city's partnership, the Right to Council program has helped keep families in their homes, resolved cases efficiently, and promoted fairness in our local court system.

It is also reduced downstream costs to the community by preventing homelessness and preserving housing stability.

We are deeply grateful for the city's investment in this program.

And this afternoon, we are here to share why continued full funding is so important, not just to legal aid, but to the well-being of all of Toledo.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued partnership.

To give you a clearer picture of how the right to council program works in practice and the impact it's having here in Toledo, I'd like to turn things over to my colleague, Legal Aid of Western Ohio Managing Attorney Veronica Martinez, who works directly within our Right to Council program every day.

She'll share more specific details about the services provided, the outcomes we are seeing, and what continued full funding will mean for the residents we serve and the consequences of a funding cut to that impactful program.

Okay.

As long as she does it in three minutes.

Come on on.

Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to stick to the three minutes.

So if you go over, please don't accept me as being rude.

Um we have been here for two hours and I do want to make sure that we're conscious of time.

Thank you.

In order to make sure that I stay within those three minutes, I prepared a handout for counsel that highlights our success of the program over the last four years.

So good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity uh to speak about the importance of our right to counsel program.

Um recognizing the disparity in evictions between landlords and tenants.

The City of Toledo took an important step forward by passing the right to council ordinance in 2021.

The ordinance, which had been a broad community support, provides uh eviction defense to households earning under 200% of the federal poverty line or up to 80% of AMI.

Um legal aid of Western Ohio uh received 250,000 um of general revenue dollars in 2022 to launch the program with uh the ordinance contemplating increased funding over the five-year phase in program.

That never occurred, but even so the program has had exceptional results.

Now, just as we are entering our fifth year, a $75,000 funding cut, nearly 30% is being proposed.

At a time when housing instability is rising, this reduction would have serious catastrophic consequences for Toledo families.

Our outcomes demonstrate the program's effectiveness.

Over the last four years, our two uh right to counsel attorneys have helped 969 households facing eviction in our city.

Assistance was provided in 1,046 eviction cases, as some of the residents faced multiple evictions in a short time span.

Our right to counsel attorneys have leveraged legal defenses to prevent or delay evictions in 90% of cases.

Um you will see the specific details on page two of the document where we list those numbers for each individual year.

Delaying evictions is crucial to allowing tenants more time to secure alternative housing and organize their move and mitigate immediate housing instability.

These outcomes show that right to counsel is not just functioning, it's highly effective.

It also saves the city money.

Eviction prevention is one of the most cost-effective interventions available.

Nationally, it is averaged uh that $35,000 per year is the cost to communities for chronic homelessness.

By contrast, the right to counsel program has an average of $900 per case.

Um so in addition to that, there have been independent evaluations.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The information.

Yes, thank you.

Councilman Colmai.

Thank you so much.

I just want to thank you both for uh speaking on this issue.

I co-sponsored that piece of legislation with Councilmember Gaddis to create this program.

Umoubtedly, we've seen successes over the years, and we really appreciate the attorney said to that work.

Um take a look.

Thank you for your advocacy, of course, and thanks for representing folks who uh are in need.

Thank you.

And they do always show up when we call as well, so I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Uh next up, we have Mr.

Gary Rasco.

Mr.

Roscoe had to leave earlier.

Um, but he was going to be here to speak on behalf of the Department of Housing and Community Development, specifically with the LED grant program.

Uh his wish before he left was just to say that uh disperse is three minutes to the rest of the speakers.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Uh so we have Mr.

John Frank.

Hello.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um, thank you for everything you guys do for our community.

Um my name's John Frank.

I am a mortgage lender with Key Bank.

Um, I'm actually here on behalf of the City of Toledo Department of Housing and Community Development.

We utilize a program called the City of Toledo Home at Last.

It's a down payment assistance closing cost assistance program that helps first-time home buyers here in the City of Toledo.

I just want to show support for that program and for that department.

The team is amazing.

And you know, last year, our group at Key Bank, we were able to help nine families secure housing here in Toledo.

Um, as we've talked about today, that in that leads to a lot of great community benefits, um, increased property uh awareness values, um, you know, retention of homes, tax, tax revenues.

Um, so I would just like to show my support of uh again of that department and all their efforts.

Um it's an amazing program.

It's really opening doors, you know, for the nine families that we helped last year.

Um, those are that's generational change, right?

And that's an impact for years and years and years to come.

Um so far this year we already have four new families already working and already in the pipeline with them, so I can tell you the demand is real.

Um the program is extremely beneficial.

Um, and with your support, we can continue to do that work.

So thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for being a strong partner uh for that program.

It's actually an amazing program, and I definitely uh commend uh uh our work on that.

Um Ms.

Rebecca Bundy, I'm sorry, uh, Councilman Saranti.

Thank you.

I just had a question for the gentleman.

Could you um could you just send us or email us where those houses are located in terms of what neighborhoods you've been able to move people into?

That would be very helpful, I think, for us to know.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam.

Okay, thank you so much.

Uh Ms.

Rebecca Bundy.

Yes, thank you, members of council.

Um I came today to address the funding cuts for the Right to Council program as well.

Um to me, the City of Toledo funding and continuing to fund the Right to Council is putting its money where its mouth is in terms of homelessness.

I have seen very intimately the connections between eviction, homelessness, addiction, human trafficking, crime.

It is all connected.

And one of the most important places to get in front of it is in front of it, before individuals have an eviction on their record that will prevent them from getting housing in many locations, before their children have to change schools, potentially to places where there is not a viable bus route, especially for individuals in charter schools, where the ramifications in terms of jobs, transportation, you name it.

I have watched landlords weaponize eviction as a way to quell any complaints that a resident has about their housing.

I have watched landlords present documents at court ready for their residents to sign because the residents do not know their rights, even in the face of claims that I found to be truly fictitious, so bad as claiming the resident didn't pay for paint that was never done enough residents.

Making sure that an attorney is capable of being there for individuals truly makes a difference, and of course, legal aid has already provided you the numbers.

I don't think we can say I mean I know there are a lot of important things in this budget.

There are a lot of things in this budget.

We are putting our money towards all kinds of important things in the city.

It is not the time to be cutting $75,000 from a program that even on its own probably doesn't knock out as much as we would wish because funding and resources are never enough.

And so I truly implore the City of Toledo to reconsider that funding cut in the name of housing and all of the things that residents face when eviction is put in their face.

Thank you.

Next up, Ms.

Fay Smith.

Excuse me.

Hi.

Hi.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um my name is Faye Smith, and I'm a community lender with Fifth Third Bank.

So as John Frank stated, I am here as well in support of the Department of Neighborhoods Home at Last program.

The program is critical.

Um there's a lot of clients.

They have the credit, they have the income, but the down payment and closing costs seems to be the barrier.

And with the home at last program, is it just putting them over the edge, giving them the ability to purchase?

I pre-approved someone yesterday.

Her pre-approval is based on the home at last.

She has great credit.

She's working two jobs, she's paying a decent amount for rent.

So her proposed mortgage payment is gonna be less than her rent.

But with programs like the home at last, it makes the dream of home ownership a reality.

I also want to commend the actual department of neighborhoods.

Director Clemens, Charles Turnbull, Stephen Powell, and Michelle Molinsky.

Am I her?

She, they're all as a unit.

They are really getting the files in and out.

I'm gonna just give this one little example.

I had a lady the last quarter of 2025.

When SA life happened, it happened.

She was living in a mobile home, it caught on fire.

So she had to go live in a hotel, her car broke down, and we were at the very end.

So if you do community lending, you don't want your borrower's credit to expire because you don't know what it's gonna look like when we have to, you know, re-pull it.

I called them and I said, Hey, I need a favor.

I know it's 21 days, but I was said, I really need to get this done, and they turned it for me in a day.

So, and I and that's just how critical and important this program is to the citizens of the city of Toledo.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Smith.

We appreciate you being a partner as well.

Um I cannot read the last name, and I will not do that in justice, but Stephanie.

Stephanie, and you can say your last name for me.

Thank you.

I appreciate the time that I get up here.

Um Stephanie Bruscell is my is my name.

I'm with Huntington Mortgage and with uh John and Faye.

I also have a community lender with Huntington as well.

And we support the Home at Last program, and we are so glad and grateful that that's an option for home borrowers out there.

Um it's a program that does allow it does allow home ownership for people that never thought that they could buy a home.

You know, when they come in front of us and sit down and they're looking to purchase a home and never thought that they can do this before in their life because they don't have the down payment to be able to do this.

So I'm just grateful that this is a program out there that we can offer, and it helps it helps so many people get into homes in our community.

So thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Uh no, we don't.

Um Morgan is the last one from uh Mommy Valley Habitat from Humanity, and then I'll open it up.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

My name is Morgan Thomas Fiatlum, and I'm the grant manager for Maumee Valley Habitat.

Our executive director, Erin McPartland wanted to be here today, but she's actually closing on two new builds this evening.

Actually, they probably handed off the keys about 30 minutes ago.

Yes, two homes in junction that we built in 2025.

Uh the last two of our eight junction builds.

Um, so as many of you know, Mommy Valley Habitat for Humanity has been working to build homes, community, and hope in Toledo and Lucas County for nearly 40 years.

We serve both aspiring homeowners and those who already own and live in their home through our homeownership and owner-occupied home preservation programs.

Since 1988, with investment from the city of Toledo, we have created affordable homeownership by building and rehabbing 239 homes.

Uh last year alone, we built 11 new homes here in the city, which are now being sold through 0% interest mortgages.

Mommy Valley Habitat for Humanities strategic plan implemented the focus of at least 80% of our work in the NRSA neighborhoods to align with our partners here in the city.

Um, as part of our commitment, mommy Valley Habitat uh purchased land and developed eight homes as I spoke to in the junction neighborhood with city funding of 81,000.

We leveraged an additional 1.2 million.

Um and as I mentioned before, that's the last two of the eight, and those keys were passed off to those new homeowners.

Um Habitat has been repairing homes since 2008, but in 2016, we transitioned um into a more roof replacement program focus, and um we wanted to assist those homeowners with very costly repairs that they weren't able to um afford on their own.

Over the course of the following nine years, uh, with City of Toledo investment of 2.2 million in CDBG to insist assist in these efforts.

We have completed over 500 roof replacements.

With that, we've successfully leveraged 3.6 million for this program in addition to those CDBG funds.

In 2025, less than five years after we partnered with the city to administer their home rescue program, we have now started on our 100th home for that program.

Over the last five years, the city has invested $3.3 million in home, CDBG, and ARPA funds for home rescue, and with that support, we leveraged $3.4 million in addition to complete that important work.

The support continues today as we are now approving two more home rescue projects.

In short, none of this impact would be possible without the City of Toledo's continued partner partnership and investment, specifically our friends at the Department of Housing and Community Development.

We are deeply grateful for the city's trust, leadership, and commitment to affordable housing and neighborhood stability, and we look forward to continuing this work as we serve Toledo together for many years to come.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We definitely appreciate uh Mommy Valley Habitat for Humanity and the work they're doing in the junction neighborhood.

Uh thank you so much.

So with that being said, um that was our last speaker that was on the forums that signed up to speak.

If we have anyone else, the podium is yours, and you have three minutes.

Good afternoon, and I appreciate your time.

I know everybody is anxious to go, but I do want to see you step to the mic and you can pull it down.

We're recording.

Thank you.

My name is Stephanie Henry.

I'm here on behalf of Ruff Mortgage, and I'm here to talk about the home at last program that the City of Toledo offers for our uh homeowners.

It is very important.

The staff we have that you have at the office is phenomenal.

They're always very supportive and helpful, willing to answer questions.

And so I just want to again reiterate the fact that how important it is to have this funding for our home buyers.

I have helped many home buyers in the last five years, and without this program, they would not have been able to have a home.

And I can't tell you how good it feels for them to be able to say I was able to buy a home.

Not only for them, but for their families and the support and the way it helps the community.

So I just want to say thank you very much, and I appreciate the funding and and look forward to having it continued.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate your partnership with the city as well.

At this time, do we have anyone else that would like to ask any questions or have any comments?

Please come forward.

And this will be our last speaker, and we appreciate everyone for coming out to our last budget hearing, and we're hopeful that we can get all the questions answered.

And the floor is yours.

And you have to.

I'm sorry, I have a couple two after that's all right.

Three minutes.

Thank you, uh members of the council.

Um my name is Noah Woods.

I'm a staff attorney here at the Fair Housing Center.

Um, and I just wanted to speak towards the importance of fully funding the Right to Council program, as well as just to give some insight uh from my perspective as a practitioner in the Toledo Municipal Housing Court.

I'm in there very frequently, and uh I would implore the council members to take a stroll into municipal court at 130 on any day of the week.

Um it's it's very heartbreaking to see um the amount of evictions that happen in the city, especially given the population size, how destabilizing it is, and then seeing those from a practitioner perspective, helping clients through eviction um and through rent escrow cases.

Uh the state of housing uh is very dire for low-income folks in the city.

The disparities in representation are uh incredible.

And when you don't have a land uh attorney and landlords almost always have attorneys, uh there's a lot of coercive pressure that is put on the tenant uh to accept terms that aren't fair, to disregard their own rights and to make deals that are unfavorable to them simply because they don't know better or they don't know what options might be available to them.

Um fully funding the right to council program is just a small step in the direction that the city needs to move because we are becoming a majority renter city, and the landlords in this city are extracting wealth out of our communities, they're destabilizing housing, and uh we need to go after these landlords to hold them accountable because that will help promote good landlords in this city.

Um every dollar that is spent towards helping our low-income housing um population is money that is invested in the future of our city.

I believe it will help move our city forward and help get ahead of the tide of housing instability that is gonna continue to get worse as we see an influx of out of state investors who completely flout the laws here locally.

They disrespect our citizens, they extract wealth out of our community, and funding the right to council program is an important way that the city can fight back against that predatory exploitation.

So I would employ implore the city to not only fund the right to council program, but to look into other initiatives and other ways that we can help support our most vulnerable populations from this exploitative predatory landlord class.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Noya.

We appreciate you and everything that you've done for our citizens of Toledo.

Thank you.

All right.

Now you are the absolute last one because we I like it.

Hopefully I'll be quick.

All right.

Uh good evening.

My name is Joe Sierra.

I'm the president of Toledo Firefighters Local NA2.

Um, first, thank you for considering uh the increase from 10 to 20 recruits.

This decision matters to us, and we truly appreciate it.

Uh tonight I've heard a lot about your the desire to grow the city, and we all share in that goal.

We want a strong future for Toledo.

But one critical area I don't believe we have fully addressed is our fire department.

The Toledo Fire and Rescue Department's uh budget was increased 2.25 million from 25 to 26.

Um of that 1.5 million uh will be going to wages.

That leaves about 750,000 for additional operations.

Um we need to talk about is the future of the city.

Um and we talked about that that's not a reasonable amount to say 750,000 dollars to operate a department for the year with the changes that need to happen with that.

You discussed building a new police station, and that conversation is absolutely valid.

But as councilman Driscoll said, uh, we need a fire station as well.

The area of Jackman in Sylvania is the busiest response area for TFD and is a perfect location for a station.

If we're serious about uh building a community-centered infrastructure, um there's nothing that's represents community more than a joint fire police station.

Our oldest station is located at Detroit and Glendale and is over 100 years old.

It's a beautiful building, but it's antiquated.

Our newest station was built in 2015.

If we begin today by replacing one station every five years, it would take 90 years to replace every station.

Station 21 will be over or will be unable to serve Toledo 90 years from now.

And I would even argue that Station 12, our newest station will struggle to remain effective too long after that due to modern building construction and the response demands and operational needs.

If we truly want to plan for the future, we must acknowledge these major expenses now.

As Toledo grows, we need more stations, more apparatus, and more firefighters to staff them.

Um apparatus is a huge concern for us right now with that effective operation operational budget of $750,000 for this year, um, an ambulance that cost $500,000, an engine that cost one million, a ladder truck that costs 2.5 million.

Um we need 10 end or 10 ambulances, eight engines, two ladder trucks.

I didn't do the math on that, but you can kind of count that's a lot.

Um these are the department's needs.

These aren't the union president standing in front of you saying this is what I want.

This is what we need.

Um at the end of the day, um we we sit here and we're considering 1.6 million dollars with increases for TPD, and we support that.

Toledo police needs that money, but we need it as well.

Um we have a $500,000 increase for TFD and in those new recruits.

Um, the $1.1 million difference it's I know it's just one uh adjustment, but to consider uh additional increases for TFD in our budget, um, especially in the the um hope of growing this city, we're not going to be able to continue with what we're doing.

Um this is not me standing here asking for more union members, nicer rigs, and newer stations.

This is me here standing here begging you to hear this message and understand that we're approaching a breaking point.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate you for coming.

Okay.

With that being said, thank you so much for the administration.

I see almost every director here, so and and a few commissioners, so we appreciate you guys coming and staying.

Thank you to the community for coming out.

We definitely thank you to my colleagues.

We did have a few have to leave for obligations outside here.

And with that being said, this meeting is adjourned.